Micro LED On A Budget? Yes If Your Budget Is $110K, The Starting Price Of Samsung's New TVs
At some point, micro LED technology has the potential to disrupt the TV display landscape by potentially dethroning OLED in image quality while completely avoiding OLED's biggest weaknesses, such as the risk of permanent image retention (burn-in). That point could be now if you're wealthy and willing to drop $110,000 or more on Samsung's expanded micro LED lineup.
Prior to now, you would have been looking at spending $149,999.99 (plus tax) at Best Buy for Samsung's 110-inch micro LED TV (model MNA110MS1AC). You'd also have buyer's remorse right about now, as Samsung just expanded its micro LED lineup to include a bigger 114-inch model that costs the same, as well as cheaper 89-inch and 101-inch models.
Don't confuse "cheaper" with "cheap," though—pricing now starts at $109,999, which gets you the 89-inch SKU (model MNA89MS1BACXZA), while the 101-inch variant (model MNA101MS1BCXZA) costs $129,999.99.
"Samsung micro LED represents the pinnacle of home entertainment, bringing a captivating, Hollywood-level viewing experience right into your home," said James Fishler, Senior Vice President of Home Entertainment, Samsung Electronics America. "Its stunning picture quality is complemented by its premium design, making our micro LED a stand-out in any home. As more and more people are looking to buy bigger screens, these new size options of micro LED displays give shoppers even more choices to find the screen that best fits their space and lifestyle."
Note that micro LED is the same as mini LED, the latter of which has emerged as a premium alternative to OLED with a few advantages, such as the ability to crank up the brightness (which is great for HDR content). However, mini LED generally trails OLED in overall image quality, especially in black levels, as OLED is an emissive technology—pixels only light up if electricity is passed through, which allows for inky blacks. Mini LED is not.
Micro LED, on the other hand, is also self-emissive to enable pixels to create their own light and color, and without relying on organic compounds. Like OLED, no backlight is needed. But unlike OLED, burn-in isn't much of a concern. Micro LED can also get exceptionally bright.
That said, spending over a hundred grand on a TV is bonkers to us, but it's an option for well-to-do buyers who want to live on the bleeding edge. Samsung's expanded micro LED TVs are 4K resolution models with a 120Hz refresh rate and FreeSync support. They also feature an micro AI processor "that uses AI to upscale" content, and come with Samsung's built-in Gaming Hub.
As of right now, Samsung's product page for the expanded sizes show a "notify me" button. Additionally, we pinged a chat support agent for what the warranty term is, and were told it's one year.
